Women in Construction Week: Luisana Garcia

Mid-States Concrete Industries celebrates Women in Construction Week (March 6 – 12) by highlighting women on our team making their mark in the construction industry.

Today we feature Project Detailer Luisana Garcia. She has been part of the Mid-States team for just over a year. In her role as project detailer, Luisana is responsible for creating piece component drawings for all of our products – beams, columns, hollowcore, wall panels, etc. She works closely with our project designers and our project engineers.

“I like to be part of the life of a building project, seeing how it develops until it reaches the total construction of the building is poetry for me,” Luisana said. “I enjoy detailing these components because it is a fundamental part of the building, and I am passionate about knowing that I am doing my best to bring that building to reality.”

While Luisana enjoys her work, it isn’t without its challenges. The biggest challenge she faces is to create the drawings without any errors. To do this, she takes the time to review project requirements and make sure that each piece she details has everything necessary to be built.

Although a female in a male-dominated field, Luisana doesn’t like to characterize herself that way. Rather, she focuses on giving her best, preparing herself to be competent in her work and utilizing her knowledge to be part of the legacy she wants to leave. She wants to be the best at what she does and continue to learn something new every day.

She looks to Marie Curie for inspiration. Marie said: “You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end each of us must work for his own improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful.”

As far as advice Luisana would offer other women looking to get into the field: find your passion and no matter what you choose to do, choose to be happy doing it.

Women in Construction Week: Tracy Miller

Mid-States Concrete Industries celebrates Women in Construction Week (March 6 – 12) by highlighting women on our team making their mark in the construction industry.

Today we feature Safety Manager Tracy Miller. Tracy has been on the Mid-States team for eight-and-a-half years. In her role, she oversees all things safety. From providing safety training to all new team members during orientation to regular plant and field audits on safety, housekeeping, and compliance to writing and implementing processes and constantly updating Mid-States Concrete’s safety procedures to keep all of our team members safe, Tracy is our go-to person.

Prior to joining the Mid-States team, Tracy worked as a tech on the line at Lear. While there, she got heavily involved with the Union, which then pushed her to get even more involved and led her to going to school to get a bachelor’s degree in human resources. When she joined the Mid-States team, it was in an administrative assistant role that helped both HR and production.

In 2016, her role started to evolve more to the safety side of things and she helped to create a safety team. This allowed for more audits and compliance, as well as more training out on the plant floor. Currently, she and her team are working on revamping work instructions and processes to find efficiencies.

“I love that it is different every day so I don’t just come in every day and do data entry or whatever,” she said. “There is always something going on.”

Tracy’s favorite part of her job is completing safety audits because she always learns something, especially if she goes out in to the field because it is different from her day-to-day at the plant. She said it is challenging to make sure she is up to date on all the regulations with everything constantly updating or changing.

Being a woman in a male-dominated industry has never really bothered Tracy. In fact, she hardly ever notices she’s the only woman around even though she rarely runs into another woman in the field. However, she has noticed when she gets mad or frustrated, it is sometimes perceived differently than if a man gets mad or frustrated.

“I’m just passionate about my work,” she said.

As far as advice Tracy would give to others looking to get in to the industry: keep your mind open to learn from others and listen, and don’t take things personally. If someone breaks a rule, it isn’t that they dislike you, it’s that they were distracted and weren’t focused on what they were doing. Being safe is thinking with intent, doing the right thing when nobody else is around.

“You have to have a lot of patience in safety,” she said.